Javalicious, A Gel Staining Reveal (Update #3)

September 14, 2012

Thanks to everyone for the constant support as I tackled this scary, scary project. It’s a big day for my little merrypad as I share the happy aftermath of my kitchen staining project. BAM, how ’bout that view?

Do you remember what it looked like before?

Getting to this point has required hours and hours of painful brainpower over three years, during which time I’ve asked more people than I have fingers and toes their opinion on oak, painted oak, stained oak, orange cabinets, gray cabinets, white cabinets, dirty cabinets, and beveled cabinets. If you were ever on the receiving end of my 20-question spitfire, my apologies, I’ve sorted it all out now. Life is good.

1. I finished staining everything.

Both sides of each door and the full cabinet base in the kitchen received not one, not two, but three coats of General Finishes Gel Stain in Java. Each coat was allowed to dry a minimum of 24 hours before being so much as touched, and as I’ve stated all along, it this stain goes on really nicely, really smoothly, so by the third coat, there’s no hint of streaking or original oak showing through at all. The real trick, as you will also see on other gel stain tutorials, is that you must leave a thin coating of the stain on the surface instead of expecting it to absorb immediately. In any case, staining took a long, long time. I suppose it could have gotten done in just 6 days (three days on one side, three days on the other) but between vacations, weddings, and our overall busy month of August, I spent a total of 20days working through this part of the project. Never fear, there’s no need to rush in the world of DIY.

I did all of my staining bare-handed, completely without gloves, because I found it harder to get into the nooks and crannies of the door bevels with an extra obstacle and none of my rubber gloves fit tight enough to not be a nuisance. Gloves actually made it sloppier to apply, and while going without made clean up a lot messier, it was worth it in the end to have such control over the application. Consequently, my hands have looked really, really bad for many weeks now. Between the staining and the fading henna from Morocco, people must just think I have a skin condition, and that’s OK, because I don’t like people standing that close to me anyways. I think my nails will need to fully grow out before I’m back to normal. Maybe that’ll happen before our December wedding.

2. I have perma-poly’d hands.

I don’t care what you hear from the specialists at Sephora: Straight out of the quart polyurethane is the ultimate nail polish topcoat. My dingy nail polish has been fused beneath it for a week.

I considered going with any common polyurethane to save a few bucks, but I had such a great experience with General Finishes stain that I splurged on a quart of their satin polyacrylic too. I didn’t exactly want something hi-gloss shiny, and was even worried about something semi-shiny, so satin felt like the safest gradient of the poly spectrum, and closest to the natural finish that we had from the stain itself (a little shinier than matte, yet easy to wipe down when I inevitably spit out milk in a fit of laughter).

Just like with the stain, I used pieces of fine weave scrap fabric to apply the poly (actually, an old piece of bed sheet fabric that had already been once downgraded into a painters tarp worked really well). The poly, unlike the stain, was water-based, but I still allowed a minimum of 24 hours between each coat. I didn’t let polyurethaning drag on quite in the same way as staining had, and six coats (three on one side of the cabinets, three on the other) were completed 7 days after returning from Morocco.

3. Installation was quick and easy.

Black and Decker unknowingly sponsored the heck out of this post after sending me its newest cordless screwdriver, the GYRO, at the end of last week. It’s the world’s first motion activated screwdriver, and that is awesome.

Pete can attest to all of the pleasantries that I’ve been spewing about this new lightweight screwdriver, I’ve really begun to feel like Emily ScissorDrillhands, fixing everything in sight because it’s just that great to use; a few quick points:

Dude. It knows which way to spin based on how the drill is balanced when you engage it. Twist it right, it tightens. Twist it left, it loosens. Somehow it works correctly upside down, facing straight up, and in all other directions you find yourself awkwardly wielding a drill when working in tiny spaces.

Tilt it a little, it turns the bit a little. Tilt it a lot, it turns the bit a lot. This took me a little getting used to, but is a really great feature and makes the tool easy to control.

Oh, and there’s no trigger, it’s activated by a button that sits in the palm of your hand as you hold and tilt it. For real, it’s magical, it needs an iridescent horn and a saddle for a tiny princess to ride it into the sunset. Have I had enough sleep lately?

Seriously, it’s great in tiny spaces, say, when you’re trying to reattach drawer tracks to refinished drawer fronts, and that point alone deserves it’s own bullet.

It’s armed with a 4V lithium-ion rechargeable battery, which compared to some of our other tools is mighty low-voltage, but it had plenty of juice with a single charge to install every single cabinet hinge, which was about 160 screws total. It may not have lasted that screwing into holes that weren’t predrilled, but I haven’t tested that comprehensively yet.

It made hanging the high cabinets so easy–there was no sense of awkwardly trying to hold a 5-lb drill above your head while you pulled the trigger gently. This, I know you can relate to.

4. Some stuff is going to stay, and some stuff is about to change.

It was always in the back of our minds that if we changed the color of the base cabinets, the countertop would have to be updated as well. Right now, it’s a flecked black/gray that for whatever reason picks up any reflection of blue in the vicinity, and while it’s not horrible with the dark cabinets, it’s still not what we have in mind, which is a pretty clean white. We’re in the process of quoting a new countertop right now, and hope to pull the trigger on it before winter.

I’m kind of surprised to say that I don’t hate the old brushed nickel knobs as much as I thought I would with the new dark brown finish, and even when I went to the store to price out alternates, I still ended up leaning towards the very same single knob style instead of something more modern (let’s face it, this house and the bevels in these doors do not scream “I’m uber-contemporary”). It may be something I change out in the future, but for now I think we’re going to get a little more wear out of the ones that came with the house.

The kitchen island needs an update too, a project that Pete and I have been considering for a long time. It was originally a freebie find on the side of the road that I made work, but we have something much different in mind. It’ll make for a good wintertime project. The fact of the matter is that right now it looks so out of place, I don’t even want to photograph it.

Other subtle touches will be making their way into our “new” kitchen, one of which being new hand towels. I bought this one handmade by Kaye Rachelle on fab.com because I thought Pete would find it super manly. I’m sure he’s not as amused as I am, but it’s great.

The appliances all around came with the house, and that itself is a small miracle this day in age. I’ve had no problems with them, and therefore have spent no money repairing or replacing them. We had planned to sell the older models and replace them with a matching set once we refinished the cabinets, but the black finish on the dishwasher, stove, and microwave blends in really nicely and so our priorities have changed. Unless we find a can’t-pass-up deal, we’ll likely live with them a little longer.

I hope you’re as thrilled as I am about the reveal, and at the very least, maybe just a little inspired. If you missed any other posts relating to this project, you can read them here:

Looking for the Gel Stain that I used to stain the kitchen cabinets? I could not find it in stores, and my best resource was General Finishes via Amazon. Learn more about the product and purchase it for yourself right here.

77 Comments

I’ve been waiting to see how these turned out, and they look fantastic! Such a huge difference and I so admire your patience with this project… When I start painting my kitchen cabs I’m afraid the ADD will kick in half-way and I’ll be sans cabinet doors for a year. lol.

Looks way better. I enjoy reading your articles as sort of the reverse of the story of the aged fisherman who caught a big fish and then had all the flesh on the fish ripped off by sharks as he brought it back to shore. My interest/enjoyment in home improvements/DIY had been ripped off and your efforts are putting some flesh back on the fish.

Oh my I love the new look! Modern yet still warm because you can see the wood grain. What a difference another color makes! I’m partial to contrasting colors so the white walls/shelves and the almost-black cabinets really makes the kitchen sing. Great job! You can’t even tell they are the same cabinets.

I took the same gel stain and went to down on my kitchen laminate wood floor, turning it from pinkish-beige to dark java brown. I kept telling myself I’m crazy, that gel stains are supposed to be for chairs or tables or cabinets, but I just couldn’t take the pink-beige anymore when the alternative was to paint them or replace them. Much happier with my “new” floor. Total gel stain convert here.

I think I remember being part of a “should I paint my cabinets/island?” comment thread a while back. I was totally voting white, or “a color”, but now I’m sold on Java (what, they didn’t have a Mocha? I kid.) Loving the hardware, too.

WOW Em! Seriously, no comparison! That doesn’t even look like the same kitchen at all!!!!!!!!! Nicely done! If we end up deciding on dark cabinets instead of white, I might be following your tutorials!

I can! The whole project was actually really affordable:
– Sandpaper could cost $15-30 (mine was already owned, I was thoughtfully gifted an assortment of it last year)
– My first 1/2 pint of Gel Stain was $14.48 (with shipping). The quart that I bought to finish the project was $27.50 (with shipping).
– The quart of poly cost $28.50 (with shipping)

I’m late to this kitchen reveal party, but WOW these turned out amazing! I’m extra impressed by your dedication to what sounds like a really labor-intense process. Your hard work paid off though – these look brand new and professionally done. You’re providing hope to tired oak cabinets everywhere that they can someday be something beautiful again. Love it!

So nice of you to say – thanks Katrina! I’m so happy (and relieved) that they turned out really nice; I’m still debating on whether the finish is too glossy (it’s just Satin, not even semi-gloss!) but will live with it for awhile before daring to mute it. :)

Love your finished project. Im in the middle of doing the same thing to my kitchen as well. It does take long time but its worth it. Did you have problems with the stain coming off on your 2nd coat exposing the old stain? I’m having that problem and I dont know what to do. Any suggestions would be great.

Hmmm! My only thought is that maybe the first coat didn’t cure long enough? Make sure it sets for 24-48 hours before applying the second coat. Are you using the same gel stain I used (General Finishes)? I did not have that issue but i know from other staining projects that if I apply a second coat too early or are too rough in its application, it kind of takes off the first coat.

Oops, forgot to comment that while I stained the outside, I did not touch the insides or the shelves. I’ve been weighing the time investment of the whole undertaking… Plus I’m not sure if I’d go in the paint or stain direction. Sorry! Hope this helps.

Also, Will, I corrected a typo in my second response but if you saw it, I was not calling you “Pops”. Haha.

Mandy

September 6, 2013 at 10:21 pm

So you roughed up the faux wood (laminate covered press board) and stained just as you did the real wood doors? Getting ready to tackle this project and am faced with real oak cabinet doors/drawers and the n the standard issue builder grade faux wood cabinets. Thanks!

Emily great job with these! Now it’s 6 months after you completed this project–can you comment on the durability of the finish? Do you notice any wear from places you touch regularly (or do you only touch the hardware).

Hi Gabe! A 6-month assessment yielded NO wear on the finish, not even any dings or nicks in the surface. What we have noticed, however, is that in some of the stain on the inset panels the corners have cracked a little bit, like you might expect to see paint crack. I believe this might be related to changing temperatures in the house, as the wood is still natural beneath that stain and it might have expanded or contracted slightly. I can get in there with a little paint brush and the same stain and patch it right up, I presume. Other than that, the finish is in very good shape – still contemplating taking the finish down to a matte so that’s it’s not as shiny. If you’re trying it yourself at home, good luck and let me know if you come into any snags!

So glad to happen upon your reveal from Pinterest! We are in the process of redoing the bathroom vanity to determine if we want to try the kitchen! I love the change, but am nervous about undertaking the kitchen. We have beautiful cabinets, they are just honey oak in color. I’m thinking the java color will bring easier sale of our house in three months. What do you think? Does the java color make it look updated? We are also replacing the laminate countertops with granite and we have gray tile flooring that will stay. Thanks again for the reveal!!

Hi Janean! I DO think that staining the cabinets would give the kitchen an overall great, updated look (especially with the tile and granite you speak of). Did your realtor mention that might help with the home’s sale? In your case, I’m trying to imagine what a home buyer would want to see in a new home. Sometimes we wander through open houses thinking that the sellers did too much to try and “update” and “prepare” the space for showing, making some rooms look more updated to a certain look than the rest of the house. But with that said, aside from the time investment, it’s a really inexpensive update to take on, and does have an impacting result if the dark java look would tie your kitchen into the way the rest of the home is being staged. Plus, if the buyer doesn’t like it it’s still easy to paint, they just can’t go backwards to natural wood. Final thought, several people have told me this already, “awww you lost the pretty oak grain, I love oak grain in cabinets”.
GOOD LUCK!

Hi Emily!
Firstly, thank you so much for posting this amazing tutorial! I’ve followed your instructions, and my once ugly oak cabinets are now a beautiful rich java… love them!
Only problem is that now I’m putting on my General Finishes polyurethane top coat, it’s pulling out little streaks in my stain! Do your cabinets have that? Or did it stay the uniform colour? I’m wondering if it’s the type of topcoat I chose… maybe I should try to hunt down the polyacrylic that you used here in Canada. My stain is bone dry (it’s been 9 days), and I really want to keep these cabinets that beautiful colour! Any suggestions? Thanks for your help! :o)

1. I noticed this a LITTLE bit too. I wondered if it had been that the polycrylic was accenting areas that weren’t properly coated in the first place. I didn’t experience “wiping away” of the stain so much as thinking that it just brought out inconsistencies (shiny tends to do that anyways, like how flat wall paint hides problem areas and glossy coats accent them).

2. After I used the poly and it dried completely, I did go back over the most noticeable places with a rag with the STAIN on it again. I essentially restained a few spots over the poly, waited for it to dry, and then poly’ed over it once more. You would never know that the touch-ups were done, and the finish is perfectly smooth.

I hope these thoughts help! Glad that my initial tutorial was helpful!

There is no wiping, actually, other than wiping the stain on for the first time. Leave it on there thick (think: thick enough to write your name in with the tip of your finger) and then let it dry. It will level out as it dries. The beauty of the gel stain is that you don’t have to massage or wipe it evenly like you do with traditional water- or oil-based stain products!

Wow love it. Few questions: do you need to sand prior to staining? We have relatively new laminate like cabinets in the home we just bought and we would like to stain. I just want to make sure I don’t miss that step if necessary. Also, did you do the insides too? And finally did you change the finishing to a matte Finish? Like you I don’t want that glossy look either. Thanks and again it looks awesome!!

Hi Kelly! Yes, you do have to sand but not aggressively; hand sanding to roughen up the top finished coat is all you need. You do not need to entirely remove the top finished coat to take the cabinetry back to natural wood (so easy!). I did both sides of the door, and had planned to paint the inside of the cabinets but never got around to it. The shelving of our cabinetry was laminate and I wasn’t sure how well it would take (so definitely do a test sample of yours). Never got around to doing the matte coat before we moved :( Would love to see a kitchen like mine done with matte to see what I missed out on! Had we been in the home an extra 6-months, it definitely would have gotten done as it was an inexpensive update (just the cost of the polyacrylic).

Your cabinets came out beautifully and after trials with two other products I won’t name and reading through your tutorial and Monica’s tutorial I think I am ready to get my feet wet… I am still having a hard time wrapping my head around not sanding all the way down so will experiment with some old kitchen doors first…. my question (and I do have one!) though is why you didn’t use the General Finishes Gel Topcoat?

Good luck, Jill! Simple answer to your question about using the Gel Topcoat: I didn’t know it existed! Ha! I just looked it up and it looks like a fine product. If you try it, I’d love to know how you like it!

I love this look,, your kitchen turned out fabulous, and i was so inspired to do this in the house we just bought that has a honey oak kitchen (in really great shape) but i CAN’T FIND any place that will ship the java gel stain to Canada!! I’ve tried a few, amazon,etc to no avail. If anyone can rescue me or has ideas please contact me corryheinricks@gmail.com. Thanks.

Sara

November 7, 2013 at 11:23 pm

Hi Corry – if you are still looking for this stuff in Camada – you can order it from http://www.woodessence.com. I ordered the java gel stain last week and it was delivered today! Now I get started on the honey oak kitchen transformation!

Corry heinricks

November 10, 2013 at 11:06 am

We finished the vanities first….love them…only thing is that the satin finish topcoat seems a bit too shiny and they don’t make matte vsrathane anywhere….not sure why ours seems shinier but…any suggestions? So we haven’t tackled the kitchen because not sure we want the cabinets in kitchen as shiny….help?

Thanks for the inspirational blog post! I’ve begun my gel staining — it’s taking about 2 days between coats, and I’m doing 3 of the gel stain and 4 of the gel topcoat……I’ll be at this literally all month. I’m doing all of my kitchen cabinets, dresser, end table, coffee table, kitchen table and 6 chairs — bedroom furniture in Georgian Cherry and everything else in Java. Oh, I’m also doing my mom’s childhood dresser for her as well (in Java). I’ve questioned my sanity many times, but thanks to blogs like yours, I know there’s a very satisfying end in sight. :-)

I was curious — the kickplate area is your cabinetry, so why do I see so many kickplates on the internet painted when everything else is gel-stained? Here in the southeast U.S., the kickplate and the quarter round moulding attached to it is all the same as the cabinet finish……is it different in other parts of the country? Thanks.

What an undertaking! I’d be excited to see the results if you want to email photos when you’re through, especially the Georgian Cherry. I bet those pieces will look great.

I wish I knew more about the kick plate area on our cabinets… they were painted and trimmed out like that when I bought the house! It makes sense to me to leave them the same color as the cabinets, I think it must have been the previous owner’s preference, probably not a regional thing…

Michele

August 28, 2013 at 11:35 pm

The great thing about gel stain is that it goes great over that white laminate……but I’m sure you’re gel-stained out at this point (I know I will be once I’m done with this major overhaul!).

The Georgian Cherry is really bright thus far, but I like it. I would have preferred the more muted Brown Mahogany, but I’m trying to match a used (gotta love Craigslist!) dresser and end table/nightstand to an armoire I already had. I’ll email you the before pic and the after-first-coat pic (they’re on my iPhone). My plan is to do 2 or 3 coats of the cherry, then hit the raised places with the Java to darken them up and accent them a little. I’ve got so much gel stain globbed into all that intricate detail work (I’m covering a blonde finish) that I’m sure my first coat will take a week to dry…..it’ll be worth it in the end though. :-)

Michele

March 18, 2014 at 1:44 pm

I see I’m not able to attach photos to this message board, so I’ll drop you an email. I’ve finished everything and we moved in the house about 3 months ago, but have been projecting ever since (and still are), so I’m slow getting the pictures to you. I really appreciate your blog — helps me stay motivated on days when I feel like crashing. :-)

I am so inspired by the transformation you made with those oak cabinets. I have been contemplating the same project for months and until seeing your progress felt very discouraged. I am going to do it! Your project turned out beautifully, and looks professional. I have 12 drawer faces and 17 standard cabinet faces and four giant pantry faces. Not looking forward to the hand discoloration, but it looks as if it was worth it. Thoroughly enjoyed your writing and approach, and I must tell you I have saved the site to desktop! I would also be interested to see other projects you have taken on…

Thanks so much for all this info- absolutely hated my cabinets and just the stain makes them look so much better! I did have one question- did you sand between poly applications? The instructions list to do so, but you were very meticulous about writing your steps down and I can’t find you mentioning that you did this! Would love not to add an extra step if I don’t have to! Thanks so much!

Glad you like! I didn’t sand between coats – the only instance when I could find that helping is if a coat dries with any sort of noticeable ridges. Even though it was thick enough to finger paint through, my stain leveled out when it dried. If after the second coat you are seeing any variations in the smoothness of the finish, only then would I suggest a very, very high grit sandpaper. The stain sits on top of the wood, so it will strip off like paint if sanded too vigorously. Hope this helps!

Corry heinricks

April 15, 2014 at 11:17 am

I didn’t sand between coats either …didn’t seem to need it…now if I could just find a flat varathane I’d be happy…the satin even leaves too much sheen for my liking (just clear costed the bath vanity but we have left the kitchen with just the stain for now and will see how it holds up – so far so good ) and I much prefer the matte finish so if anyone has suggestions. All the hardware stores said there is no varathane with matte finish made.

That looks great. We are struggling with the staining process right now, and seeing your pictures made me feel a lot better. We are on coat 2, and it still looks super blotchy in some places. I have hope now that it will turn out great. Love the dark wood and the gray in your kitchen.

Keep at it! It will continue to get better and better. Glad my photos inspired!

Michele W

June 30, 2014 at 11:33 am

Trina, for your final coat of stain, you could try to use a foam brush instead of wiping on with a rag — that will give a more even texture which should take care of the blotchy look. Just be careful not to apply the stain too thick with the foam brush or it will be easier to chip off when the cabinets are hit with something (although you can easily touch up any spots with a Q-tip).

This stuff is junk. I’m convinced people promoting this crap are getting paid by General Finish. I’ve tried it and the finished product looks like dried brown goo. I would never have this in my home. This stuff looks so bad in person up close. Brown paint out of a sprayer will look a million times nicer.

Hey Jason, sorry you had a lame experience with the product. I wasn’t paid by the company and the people who referred me to it originally weren’t either. I’ve heard of a lot of DIYers having success with it, and also, having applied brown paint and brown opaque stains out of a sprayer, I can attest to the finish of the cabinets being significantly nicer! Smooth and even.

Your kitchen looks great. I love the java stain. I did both of my bathroom vanitys with this and they look PERFECT! Like we purchased them that way. I am thinking about using this on my kitchen cupboards but I have a large piece on one side that is laminate but with a wood grain “look” to it. I’m wondering if the stain will cover the wood grain and make it look like I just painted it or if the wood grain will still show through, even though it’s laminate. Did you have any experience painting on laminate with this?

You did a beautiful job on your cabinets! I am in the process of a makeover in my kitchen and am wondering if the Minwax Gel Stain works just as well. Did you do any inquiring about brands in your researching products. Did anyone have any comments on using Minwax instead of General Finish. We don’t have that brand where I live.

Thanks Rhonda! I have used Minwax brand though not in as extensive an application. I think Minwax was just coming out with its product or had yet to release it when I did my cabinets, so the options for gel stain were fewer at that time.

If any other readers see this and have better experience with Minwax Gel Stain, please let us know!